Computer systems are currently in wide use. Some such systems are customized (some significantly) before they are deployed at an end user's site. Such systems often also have updates which can be installed.
By way of example, some such computer systems include business systems, such as customer relations management (CRM) systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, line-of-business (LOB) systems, etc. In these types of systems, a general business system is first purchased by a user or customer, and the user or customer often makes customizations, extensions or other modifications to that general business system, in order to obtain their own customized deployment.
Such systems often have updates published for them. The updates can include new releases, as well as bug fixes. For instance, when new releases of the business system are generated, they are often followed by a number of bug fixes for problems that were not fixed prior to release. The fixes are normally released, piecemeal, as they are generated. Periodically, however, a cumulative update package is released which includes all of the fixes generated, to that point. This may, for example, include hundreds or even thousands of fixes.
When customers wish to apply the fixes from the cumulative update to their own customer product, they have conventionally had to either apply all of the fixes in the cumulative update, or none of them. There has not been any ability to pick and choose which specific customizations to apply, from a cumulative update.
Further, a user may apply multiple different fixes to their product over time. It can be difficult for the user to know the comprehensive update status of the product. This is not tracked or stored.
Also, in such business systems, it is not uncommon for users to be operating in multiple different environments. For instance, a user may be a developer that is operating in a development environment, and a test environment, or multiple development and test environments. Similarly, where a product has been deployed, there may be a production environment as well, among other environments.
It is currently difficult for a user to decide whether to apply any updates, and if so, which ones. If the user operates in multiple environments, the user may need to apply the selected updates in all environments. This is time consuming. Also, the user is unable to determine how the updates will affect the underlying business processes and objects within the business system, before they are applied. Further, if the user chooses to apply all of the updates in the cumulative update, there are often conflicts. That is, a user's customization may conflict with an applied update. It can take the user a great deal of time and effort to resolve such conflicts.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.